Mississippi Mud

Summer has got to be one of my favorite seasons for food. I love busting out the dutch oven and making making amazing food. 

This recipe can be made in either the oven with an indoor dutch oven, for those of you that don't have a dutch oven for outside! We have made it both ways and it turns out great!

Ingredients:

1 yellow cake mix, mixed as directed

1/2 cup cocoa

2 cups brown sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 cup water

1 bag chocolate chips

1 cup pecans, chopped

Prepare cake mix as directed on box. If using an outdoor dutch oven, line with heavy foil and pour in cake batter. For indoor dutch oven, spray with cooking spray, and pour. Combine cocoa, brown sugar, vanilla, cinnamon, and water. Pour over the top. Cover dutch oven with briquettes on top and bottom and bake for 60-70 minutes (or until knife comes clean). In oven bake at 375 for 25-30 minutes. For the last ten minutes of outdoor and indoor cooking, top with chocolate chips and pecans. Serve with whipped cream or ice cream. 

Dutch Oven Chicken Cordon Bleu

As you know we enjoy outdoor cooking.  Our favorite time of year is anytime we can enjoy being outside, enjoying the weather, and a great meal.  Here is a great meal to help reach maximum outdoor pleasure.

Ingredients:

4 chicken breasts pounded out

4 slices of black forest ham

8 slices of Swiss cheese

salt and pepper

2 cups of cream of chicken

2 cups of milk

Pound out your chicken breasts with either a rolling pin, or a mallet.  You want the chicken to be about 1/4 inch thick.  Season each side well with the salt and pepper.  Place a slice of ham, and cheese inside the chicken, and fold it up keeping all edges sealed as best as possible.  You can use a toothpick if you want to keep them together. 

Heat up your dutch oven very high heat over a stove and place the chicken in the bottom seam side down.  Cook on each side for 3-4 minutes or until a nice crust has formed, and it will hold it's form.  Then, add the cream of chicken, and milk mixture to the dutch oven.  You can cook this in your oven at 350 for 1 hour, or you can do it outside with 10 coals on both top and bottom for an hour.  Top with another slice of Swiss for the last couple of minutes to melt it.

Serve with the sauce poured over.  That simple. Enjoy!!

Chicken Cacciatore

This is a classic Italian dish that works in quite a few ways.  Use a large pot, use a Dutch oven over a fire, or use a skillet.  Whatever your weapon of choice, just use something that will get this on your plate.   

Serves 5-7 people
Ingredients:
4-6 drumsticks
4-6 wings or thighs
1 qt buttermilk
salt and pepper
1/8 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup flour
Salt and Pepper 
1 package spaghetti


Sauce:
1 cup dry white wine
1/8 cup olive oil
1 onion-finely chopped
1 clove garlic chopped
2 tbsp capers 
2 can crushed tomatoes
1 can of water (use tomato can to get excess juice) 
1 can tomato paste
1 teaspoon basil-dried
1 teaspoon oregano-dried
salt and pepper


Start off by marinating the chicken in the buttermilk, overnight if you can.  In a large pan, heat up the vegetable oil.  Strain the chicken, and dust with the flour that is seasoned with salt and pepper.  Once oil is around 375, fry the chicken on all sides until golden brown.  You want the skin to crisp up.  Remove the chicken and drain excess oil on a paper towel.


In the pan with chicken bits... de-glaze with the white wine.  Add the e olive oil, and then the garlic and onions until the onions are translucent, be sure not to burn the garlic.  Add the rest of the sauce ingredients.  Put the chicken back into the sauce, and let cook for 25 minutes.  


While sauce is cooking, cook the pasta about 2 minutes shorter than the time suggests.  The strained, cooked pasta to the pan, and toss with the sauce and chicken.   Serve with some Parmesan cheese, and enjoy!!

Mountain Man Breakfast

There is nothing better when you are camping then a good breakfast. This past weekend, we promised the kids that we could camp in the backyard. They had so much fun, and slept surprisingly well (though I don't think we did). So of course to enhance our "camping" experience we had to have the mountain man breakfast! We made this in our indoor dutch oven, but of course you can make it outside as well!

Serves 8-10
Ingredients:

1 (2 pound) package frozen, shredded hash browns
1 pound breakfast sausage
1 yellow onion, diced
10 eggs, beaten
2 cups cheddar cheese
salt and pepper

Brown the sausage in dutch oven. Remove and add potatoes and onion, season with salt and pepper. Let brown for about 10 minutes or so. Then add sausage back in, top with eggs, a little more salt and pepper and cheese. If you are making in the oven, bake for about 35-40 minutes, or until the eggs are done. If you are using the dutch oven outside, bake for about 45-50 minutes.

Dutch Oven Peach and Mandarin Orange Cobbler

This desert can be a perfect cap to a perfect meal. Nothing says dutch oven like a cobbler, 
and nothing says cobbler like the fruity flavor or peach. Serve this up with a scoop of ice
cream and you'll feel a burning in your "fuzzy" navel.

Ingredients:

2 30 oz cans of peaches strained

2 8 oz cans of mandarin oranges

1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 cup brown sugar

1 yellow cake mix

1 can orange cream soda

4 tblsp butter cubed

Line the dutch oven with heavy duty foil, and to the bottom add the peaches and oranges.  

Sprinkle over the top the sugar and cinnamon. Pile the dry yellow cake mix in the middle of the fruit, and make a well on top. Pour the soda into the middle of the cake mix, and stir themix until it's moist. Spread the cake evenly over the fruit, and top with the cubed butter.

Cook for 45-60 minutes with 8-10 briquettes on bottom, and 14-16 on top. You can increase the briquettes on top if the cake still looks wet after the 45 minutes. Serve hot with cold ice cream or whip cream..... eat up cause it will go fast.

Dutch Oven S'more Cake

Oh thinking about this recipe makes my mouth water. We were trying to come up some sort of great dessert to make in the dutch oven. Well everyone loves s'mores, so why not make a s'more cake! The marshmallows make the cake really gooey...but man is it good!

Ingredients:

1 chocolate cake mix (made as directed on package, just not cooked)

2 cups graham cracker crumbs

1 package mini marshmallows

1 package semi sweet chocolate chips

1 1/4 cup water

1/4 cup cocoa

1/2 cup brown sugar

Mix together cake mix as directed on the package. Mix together water, cocoa, and brown sugar. In dutch oven, line with tin foil. Then add water mixture, followed by graham cracker crumbs. Then add marshmallows, then cake mix, and finally chocolate chips. Put 10 briquettes on the bottom, and 8 on top and let cook for 60-75  minutes. Top with whip cream..enjoy!!!

Dutch Oven Sun-dried Pesto Stuffed Chicken

Part two of the camp dinner.  This makes a great dish to go along with the potatoes.  A little labor intensive, so I encourage you do the leg work before you get to the mountains... unless you like a little extra dirt crunch in your food.

Serves 8-10
Ingredients:

8-10 Boneless skinless chicken breasts pounded out until about double in size
8-10 slices provolone cheese
8-10 slices of a dry salami
1/4 cup pesto (use our recipe or buy some)
1/4 cup sun-dried tomatoes
Salt and Pepper


Sauce
1/2 container of sour cream (8 oz)
3 cups heavy cream
2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp flour
1 cup Parmesan cheese

Start by pounding out your chicken breasts using a rolling pin or a mallet.  (Hint: I put my chicken breasts in a freezer bag and pound it until it almost touches all the sides.)  In a blender or food processor, mix the pesto and the tomatoes until fully blended. You may need to add some more olive oil if it seems too dry.  Season each side of the breasts with salt and pepper.  In the middle of the breast place a tsp of the pesto mixture, a slice of cheese and slice of salami. Fold the chicken, similar to a burrito, as to not have anything leak out from the middle.  Wrap in a Tupperware, and keep cool until you are ready to cook. Repeat with all the chicken

In a dutch oven, over 12-15 briquettes (or camp stove to start) brown the chicken breasts, seam side down first, in a tbsp of butter.  Once browned on all sides, remove from oven, and let rest covered in foil.  To the dutch oven, add the rest of the butter, and whisk in the flour.  Add the cream, sour cream, and cheese.  Stir over the heat until it begins to tighten.  Put the chicken back into the sauce and cover.  Cook for 45-50 minutes using 10 briquettes on bottom, and 10 on top.  Campfire food has never been so chic...  Enjoy!!

Dutch Oven Potatoes

So as a summer tradition (2 years running) we go up to a canyon near our house, and have a campfire dinner.  Having mountains close affords us some spectacular scenery, wonderful wildlife, and delicious dutch oven cooking.  Hot dogs, and smores are a thing of the past.... while we still do the smores from time to time.  This is the first of a couple of recipes that you can make using a dutch oven, fresh ingredients, and some coals from the fire... briquette if you a cheater like me.  Enjoy a taste of the mountains.

Serves 10
Ingredients:
15 medium sized potatoes sliced into 1/4 inch rounds
2 medium sized onions sliced
1 package bacon chopped into small squares
4 tblsp butter
2 tblsp grill seasoning
salt and pepper

Start by heating up your dutch oven over 12-15 briquettes getting it nice and hot.  Cook the bacon, until crispy.  Keep as much or a little of the fat as you want, as it will help cook the potatoes.  Add the onion, and cook for a couple of minutes stirring often until they begin to caramelize.  Add the potatoes, grill seasoning, and butter.  Stir until all the ingredients are mixed well.  Place the lid on the dutch oven over the potatoes and use 4 of the briquettes from the bottom, on top, evenly spaced.  Cook for 30-40 minutes or until fully cooked, checking often and stirring.  You'll know they are close when the skins start to fall off the potatoes.  Be sure to season them all along the way with the salt and pepper to taste.  That's it, all the dutch oven, smokey goodness you can eat.  Enjoy!

(Hint: I'm a cheater as I said, I also use my camp stove to cook the bacon before I add the potatoes over the coals.  Feel free to do this as it won't take quite as long.  If you do this, just finish the cooking over the briquettes.)